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People /Guy Cassiers

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Guy Cassiers (1960) is one of Europe’s foremost theatre-makers. His idiosyncratic theatre language in which he successfully marries his passion for visual technology and literature, is highly rated in Belgium and abroad.

In recent years Guy Cassiers concentrated on the complex relationship between art, politics and power in his Triptiek van de macht (Triptych of Power: Mefisto for ever, Wolfskers and Atropa. Avenging Peace). He took that theme a step further in a triptych based on Robert Musil’s great novel Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (The Man without Qualities). Apart from a strong visual approach, music has also come to play an increasingly important role in Cassiers’ productions, as evidenced by two opera creations he made in 2009: House of the Sleeping Beauties (music Kris Defoort) and Adam in Ballingschap (Adam in Exile, music Rob Zuidam). It is perhaps no coincidence that he has spent the last few seasons staging Wagner’s Ring in Berlin and Milan.

Projects like Bloed & rozen. Het lied van Jeanne en Gilles (Blood and Roses. The song of Gilles and Jeanne) about the Church’s power and manipulation, and Duister hart (after Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness) about the colonial past, reflect Guy Cassiers’ growing interest in European political history. Productions like SWCHWRM strike a lighter note, as does Guy Cassiers’ appearance in Middenin de nacht (In the Middle of the Night), Toneelhuis’ January 2012 ensemble production. Orlando is Cassiers’ new creation for 2013.